Curry house crisis hots up Brexit debate

Mixing spices in a searing hot pan, cooking naan in the tandoor oven and juggling takeaway orders, restaurant owner Saiful Alam is short-staffed and stressed — a situation he hopes Brexit will improve. Like many of those running Britain’s 12,000 curry houses, the Bangladeshi chef is struggling to find suitable staff as new immigration rules have made it harder to hire people from Bangladesh and India. The issue has taken on political heat ahead of the June 23 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, after the Vote Leave campaign claimed that the problem was the fault of uncontrolled EU migration pushing up numbers of arrivals.